I’ve always been amazed by the random kindness of Taiwanese people. This is something that I did not often come across elsewhere… or, at least, I do not have distinct memories of it (this may be due to not noticing such things in my youth).
The other day I was out hiking in the mountains, looking for trails. I passed by a small farm where an older man was gathering some bananas from one of his trees. He loaded them into his little blue truck as I walked past and continued up the road. Soon he was driving by me and speaking to me, although he was quite old and his accent was so thick, I couldn’t immediately understand. He stopped his truck and mumbled something about [hanzi]香蕉[/hanzi] ([pinyin]xiang1jiao1[/pinyin]). I breathed a sigh of relief as he took out a knife because I realized that he wanted to offer me some of his bananas. He cut off two bananas and offered them to me and cut a third for himself. The bananas were more natural… not long and thin like what you might find in an American grocery store, but short (about 5-6 inches), fatter, and had small black seeds them.
It looked much like this, but with fewer and smaller seeds.
The banana was also much sweeter than the variety you find in grocery stores. As we ate our bananas together, we made some small talk, him asking where I was from, where I worked, etc. He said something I didn’t understand at the time, but when I later asked Mrs. Expatriate, I understood that he had said “這個噴藥沒有” (zhe4gepen1yao4mei2you3), meaning “These bananas don’t have any pesticides.”
I finished my banana, thanks him several times, and said goodbye, continuing on my walk. It was a very pleasant exchange and one that, even though it happens fairly often, I have not gotten used to.
Recently, I have run into one of my students from about 2 years ago. She lives not far away and works with her parents making soap and running a small cafe. We stopped into her shop to catch up and were literally treated as royalty. Free samples, free coffee, take this and try it at home, would you like some tea, etc. I had never given them or my student anything such as special attention (at least, I don’t think so) although I like to think that I had been a good teacher. However, time after time after meeting up with former students or their parents, we’ve always been offered free samples, free food, discounts, etc.
Are Mrs. Expatriate and I different? Do other foreigners experience this? I’d really like to know. Is this just as common with other foreigners in different parts of Kaohsiung? Please let me know.
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